Coming To Seattle For A Visit
We will be in the Seattle area September 2nd through the 11th. Why are we coming to the PNW? I am honored to be asked to preach on September 3rd at Crossway Fellowship. We also have signed up for the Crossway Family Camp at Lakeside Bible Camp. It is our desire to give glory to God with a report on all that He has done in our church planting endeavors in Arkansas.
It will be such a joy to see as many of you as possible at camp and at church. We know our time will go by quickly and our schedule will fill up. So, Please give us a call to set up breakfast, coffee, lunch or dinner if you desire to spend some additional time together with us.
We have some needs for our time there in Seattle:
1. Do you have an extra car that you could loan us? We need a means of getting around locally to visit with people.
2. We will be at Family Camp and we need some bedding or sleeping bags to use in the cabins.
We wait to hear from you! See you soon.
Bart
Developments
I preached last Sunday with the comfort of AC. I believe it helped the message - I wasn’t sweating through my shirt.
This week the insulation is sprayed into the attic and into the walls. Also, the new windows are in. I can’t wait to see them installed - what a transformation that will bring to our worship gathering! I imagine the installation will happen on Saturday.
Also our sound system is coming together which is timely as the dust will settle from all the construction - dust and sound equipment don’t go well together.
My family - all my children and grandchildren were in worship last Sunday. With Kristen’s family joining us at church, we had about 46 (unconfirmed). This was our highest attendance on a Sunday and stretched some of our limits - One toilet and no sound system. We give God the glory for all that he is doing at Covenant Baptist Church.
Sermon postings
https://open.spotify.com/show/5FrfBkcX5U137lDp1U26Qt
This link will take you to the Sermon archive of Covenant Baptist Church.
We are using Spotify for now as we figure out a permanent place to post our church sermons. So far it is only audio recorded with a handheld digital recorder. We are not mic’d so when I wander away from the pulpit….which I do more than Josh… you will hear my voice get quieter as I walk away from the recording device.
These are the early years… more to come later.
BTW our launch date is set - September 17, 2023
The Slough of Summer
It is hot here.
Kristen and I are feeling the exhaustion that comes with hard work and acclimation to the South. Last week, as we worked on the church building, Sam, son of Jake Rice, told me that his dad works with someone they call, sweaty Eric. Without skipping a beat he said to me, “You’re just like sweaty Eric.” There was no malice or disrespect, it was just a matter-of-fact statement like, “You’re tall” or “You’ve got a tiny beard” (also said to me by Jake’s daughter).
The good news is that with hard work, progress is being made. The AC unit will arrive tomorrow and the ducting will be run in the attic. Hopefully, the building will be cool on Sunday. The next two worship gatherings are forecasted to be burners at 91 and 96 degrees respectively (Worship gatherings in burning ovens are biblical and we have done a couple already - see Daniel 3).
An answer to prayer is that our lease is in hand. With all the labor and materials we are putting into making this space suitable for gathering, we have been praying for the security of a lease. The lease will ensure that we are at this location for the next 7-10 years worshipping our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. All thanks be to Him.
We are working on my employment at Covenant Baptist Church. My employment transfer from Crossway Fellowship to CBC will make Arkansas state taxes so much easier. However, this is a big job for us as a fledgling church. Pray that we administrate it well and that God connects us with wise people who can help us in the process.
Last, it is such a joy to work and live in this community of faith. We have new brothers and sisters who encourage and love us. God is so good. What we could only imagine in Seattle is now reality, with faces and names. God knew all along, and we just had to have a little bit of faith and courage to believe and trust Him. Packing up a moving truck and sloughing across Wyoming in a winter storm seems so far away. And soon this slough of summer will be in the past as well and God will have new things for us to trust him with as this heat and trial becomes a memory.
This is the path of faith. Ours is that thrilling story John Bunyon allegorizes in Pilgrim’s Progress. Paul says it this way,
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18
Our blessed faith is believing Jesus, and pressing on in life, all while straining to see glory.
Donations
Thank you, Crossway Fellowship, for supplying the funds to insulate our building and install new windows. This gift will prepare the grange to retain the conditioned air once the HVAC is installed. We are so grateful for your generosity that helps with this up-front cost.
Thank you, to the electric guy - who shall remain anonymous - who pulled a $400-$500 meter/disconnect panel off the back of his truck and gave it to the church. He said it was better than what we were trying to install. We agree, it is better. As a service provider, electric companies don’t install the panels, so we wondered why he would even have one on his truck. We are redoing all the electric in the building. God knew we needed a more awesome electric meter/disconnect panel.
Thank you, to someone named Bill, who is donating a wireless receiver and pack. We don’t yet have a sound system, but this the first piece of the puzzle.
Thank you, patriarchs of Covenant Baptist Church, who are purchasing hymnals and psalters for us to use in our Sunday morning worship.
Thank you, Jesus, for using these people to bless Your church.
HOT and Glorious
We met for the first time on Sunday in the historic Zion Grange building. We have no AC in the building, and the temperature was in the 90’s. It was HOT! It reminds me of Paul writing, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison 2 COR 4:17.”
We do have a working toilet so the affliction is bearable. Despite our experience of a little bit of affliction, there was a lot of glory in our gathering. Now, glory is not just singing worship songs together. However, as Covenant Baptist Church was singing God’s praises, the Zion grange must have seemed to have its own voice. I wonder if the neighbors stopped to listen as they heard a new sound floating through their windows. I wonder if they recognized the melody as we sang all 6 verses of “The Church’s One Foundation.”
Someday we will have AC in the building, for now we sweat and sing. He is worthy, and He is building His church.
I preached on Ephesians 3:20-21. The sermon asked, “How does Christ receive glory in the church?”. The church takes what the Father has given and we magnify or multiply it as an act of love and devotion. The church adorns her King as a beautiful bride… one that He has created, redeemed and sanctified.
You will have to wait to listen to our sermon recordings… we don’t even have a sound system yet. They are coming soon!
Zion
Last week we met for our first Sunday morning home worship gathering. Covenant Baptist Church is born.
“It was a great day yesterday! I thought the service was beautiful, faithful, and organized.” - Josh Rice
“Thank you men for leading our worship of The King this morning. It was a sweet time! May we always fear God rather than men!” - Jake Rice
We are working on the historic Zion Grange building where we hope to meet this Sunday. Renovation began with removing the paneling on the walls. We will paint the shiplap beneath with clean white paint. We are getting AC soon, but our first couple of meetings will be warm. We also need to address some broken pipes so we can turn on the water to the bathrooms. Our hope is to use the building and in the process find and repair all its issues before our public launch in September. Lots of excitement. Lots of work. Bless the LORD he is building His church.
I’ll post picture of the progress!
Big News
For those of you following our story this will be a “youge” post.
We are happy to announce our church plant has a name. We would like to introduce you to Covenant Baptist Church of Northwest Arkansas. We have the website up at www.covenantbaptistnwa.com. Our church plant is located in Springdale, Arkansas, and we plan to launch services in September. Sunday will be our first home church meeting at the home of Lanny and Kathy Rice.
Pray for us as we gather that God would root and establish us in Him. Our logo is an olive tree and that is how I am picturing this new church. We will need nourishment and the tender care of our gardening God.
I read this today: Psalm 119: 124 “Deal with Your servant according to Your steadfast love, and teach me your statutes.125 I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies!” This is our cry, that Covenant Baptist Church would serve the LORD in the strength it receives from a deep understanding of God’s Law-Word.
We will begin renovation on our leased space this summer (the lease is $0). We will add some mini-splits to air condition the space and we need to purchase some basic sound equipment. We will also put in a lot of sweat and labor to paint and do minor repairs. We estimate our up-front cost will be $13,000 to $15,000. If you can help us financially please contact me or use our church giving platform that will be added to the church website very soon - hopefully tomorrow.
If you have questions - reach out to me. There is so much to tell, I would love the chance to give you more details!
Update End of May
I can see people checking in on my blog with website analytics, and I guess it is your interest in reading a new church planting update. Church planting, so far, has been lots of fast and furious progress interspersed with lulls that make us wait. We are in one of those waiting times, but I look forward to sharing really amazing updates that we see on the horizon.
Here is what is happening. On the home front, we have furniture in our home. I can say home now because it is starting to feel like our home with familiar items emerging from boxes. These items are parked in temporary spots till Kristen can determine where they are supposed to go. But, as each thing comes from the storage facility and is emptied, it feels more like us here. My dad and I finished framing the laundry/pantry and covered the walls with shiplap. Our punch list still includes upper cabinets in the kitchen, new countertops, molding, and a sliding barn door so guests can't see into the laundry/pantry area. We are not finished, but we could invite guests over at this point.
Kristen is just returning from Oregon, where our other car has been parked. It will be nice to have our other car as Kristen has started work for the pregnancy clinic, Loving Choices. She is working part-time as their Development Director. I'm jealous because she has an office.
As far as the church planting is concerned, we are waiting for some things to fall into place. As we wait, we are developing relationships with those who will be our core team. I am still making contacts and inviting them to the new church, which is awkward because we are not meeting yet. Even so, people are interested. I look forward to our first gathering where our cries as a new church will glorify the living God who has made us and has called us his very own.
Keep checking in. I promise to post as soon as I have new information to share!
Bart
Hey, I know you…
Kristen and I were just at Sam’s Club. It seems Sam’s Club (or Costco) is the public watering hole for our cultural wasteland. Everyone seems to go there to fill a shopping cart with supplies during the week, so you have an opportunity to see literally everyone.
Kristen went for a cart while I got in line at the customer service desk to return some shoes for my mom. As I am waiting, a guy carrying a baby approaches the woman in front of me. He looked so familiar but the baby threw me because the person I know doesn’t have a baby. Suddenly I over came my doubt and said, “Hey, I know you!” After an awkward pause they looked at me and said, “Hey what are you doing here.” These are people we knew from Denver. We haven’t seen them for 3 or 4 years. Jonah had worked with Isaac, my son, in the youth ministry. Jonah’s mom and dad, Wendy and Marcus, are also friends of ours. We discovered that, Jonah and his wife, Rachel now have a child and live in the same town as us. We had a quick reunion and exchanged numbers. We will have lunch soon and invite them to launch a church with us. Who knows maybe they will say, “yes.”
We are planting a church but God is doing it.
Bart
Conference Weekend
Kristen and I are in Autin TX this weekend for the Theonomy and Postmillennial Conference that Right Response Ministries is hosting. I haven’t been to a conference since starting our work in the Seattle area. I am looking forward to using this opportunity to learn and grow in these areas. A conference is also a good time for me to do something besides remodeling and allowing my ankle to heal. The speakers include Dr. Joseph Boot of the Ezra Institute, Dr. James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries, Joel Webbon of Right Response Ministries, and Dale Partridge of ReLearn.
Since we are staying with Kristen’s sister, Courtney Sprague, and her family, we brought Kristen’s mom down with us to Austin for a visit. In addition to the conference, we are looking forward to seeing a few old friends from our ministry days in Austin (as time permits.) Of course, we would love to see everyone, but we need to get back to NWA and our work there.
On the church planting front, Josh Rice and I have started reading through Galatians and plan to meet soon to begin sermon prep for that series. Does that mean we have a date to launch a church plant? Well, there are some details to be worked out about timing so, the answer is “Not yet,” but we are getting ready.
Stay tuned and keep praying for us. More to come soon!
Ankle Update
I’m in bed resting my foot tonight. I have a little pain during the day but using it leaves my foot a little swollen and bruised in the evening. Of course, I’m limping around doing stuff all day long. All in all, it is improving and I have full range of motion…just need a little more time healing. All that to say, “Thank you for praying for my ankle.” God is answering.
Update 4/24/23 - Ankle
Pray for my ankle. Isaac came to visit this weekend and wanted to go climbing with me. I took a bad fall and rolled my ankle. Right now it is swollen and stiff but I can walk on it with a limp. I am trying to stay off it but there is a lot to be done. Pray the swelling goes down and that I can return to work.
Bart
Update 4/21/23 - Who is Josh Rice?
First, we are still renovating. We have two chairs in our living room but no other furniture. The good news is that the plastic sheeting has come down because we are not creating lots of dust. Walls are down and tile flooring has been removed. We are painting and prepping the floors for new vinyl plank flooring.
Who is Josh Rice? Josh is an elder at the local church that we are attending. I first met Josh on our visit in February. He immediately asked me to email him everything about us church planting, our planning, timeline…everything. He emailed me back that he was feeling the call to plant a church in East Springdale and that his timeline had been accelerating. Our email exchanges quickly turned into dinner at his home where we discovered that we were very like-minded in our planting desire, theology and philosophy of ministry. Of course, we have differences but they are minor compared to our similarities.
I had breakfast with Josh last Wednesday and things have definitely been happening. He has secured an old grange building. It used to be an old school house but it looks like a country church. The owners are leasing it to the church plant for free. He then invited me to join him on an epic run to Lincoln Arkansas where we loaded 30 pews, a pulpit and a communion table - also free. After getting a blow out on the highway and unloading at the church building, he dropped me back at my car around 10PM. He and a few others went back for the last 9 pews. Those pews were heavy!
Im not quite sure if I am to partner with Josh to plant this church OR if I help him start and then branch off a new church plant at some point. Pray for wisdom as we proceed but it feels like my work is being laid out before me. Josh is excited to have a partner because even though things are happening, he knows the work of starting a new church is daunting. The plan is to launch this fall, perhaps September or October.
I will post more details later. If you have questions just email me!
Bart
Moving In - Update 4/12/23
Nothing extraordinary to report, but I wanted to update anyway. We are moving in and doing repairs/remodeling on our home. I am grateful for my father who arrived our first day here and has been very helpful and knowledgable. We move from project to project getting things done. Kristen has been working to establish/re-organize our kitchen - not in the kitchen - so we can work on the kitchen. I am grateful for my brothers who have come and help as well.
Thank you for those who are praying. Pray we get our home in working order so we can focus on church planting. We are moving forward onne step at a time.
Moving Update - April 7th
The Lord finally released us from Wyoming. I have that feeling of disorientation that makes you keep asking, “What day is it?” All I know is that we are here by the grace of God. Your prayers have literally carried us and guarded us all the way. I can’t begin to tell all the near misses and potentially disastrous events that happened on the road, but God has gotten us here to Arkansas.
We are about to leave for a walk through on our home, go to closing and then begin to unload the truck. We are exhausted from the intensity of the road with its constant rush of adrenaline. Our bodies are catching up to the fact that we have arrived so we feel a bit fried. Continue to pray for us that God would settle us in to begin the planting process. Even now he is starting something new.
Moving April 4th
Winter storm Vanessa has us trapped in Rock Springs WY. I-80 is closed and we are in a comfortable hotel waiting for the storm to pass. Thank you for your prayers. Yesterday was another harrowing day on the road. Kristen and I were having trouble with our windshield wipers freezing. They don’t work well to clear your vision when they are solid chunks of ice. We stopped at a truck stop and bought new anti freeze wiper fluid and new blades. This helped a little. We passed some really ugly wrecks.
We are safe. Keep us in your prayers as we begin to travel again.
Move day Update April 2
We made it to Boise. God answered prayers and got us over Snoqualmie pass on dry roads. However the blue mountain pass appropriately named “Dead-man’s pass” was a test of my prayer skills. I thought about Paul’s shipwrecked journey as we drove white roads and I asked God over and over to clear my windshield of snow because my wiper blades were frozen. “Lord, I need to see!” He got us ahead of the storm and a break in the dark skies shone blue again. Hwy 84 was closed after we passed over. Kristen stopped for food while I kept going and the storm caught her again. Your prayers got us to our resting spot. Thank you Crossway and friends every where. Keep us lifted up cause we have 2 days to go. Bart
Church Planting Update March 27th + Prayer request
Moving is not the most enjoyable process. It is a lot of work and planning. We are one week away from our move to North West Arkansas (NWA). 95% of our things are packed, so we are using paper plates and cups and looking at boxes everywhere.
Many have asked how our last week will look as we wrap up ministry and life in Lynnwood. You can find us at the online prayer gathering on Tuesday, we will be at youth group on Wednesday, and I will have one last fire-pit with the guys on Thursday to finish 1 John 5. Then, on Friday, I fly to Boise ID. to rent a truck and drive it back to Lynnwood. Saturday will be a loading day. Sunday, we will attend Crossway Fellowship one last time and leave promptly after the service ends. Perhaps, the church will gather outside and wave us on, weather permitting.
We will travel 7hrs. back to Boise ID. on Sunday to arrive at our overnight stay. Monday, 12hrs. driving will get us to Denver CO. where we will stay with our son Isaac. Tuesday, another 12hrs. will get us into NWA. On Wednesday, we will get up and do a walk-through of our new home in Siloam Springs AR. Our closing will be sometime after the walk-through, and then, the unloading will begin.
We want to thank all those who have helped us pack and all those who will help us load on Saturday. Our task is exhausting, and we cannot do it alone. Kristen and I, also want to thank Elaine and all those who sent us off yesterday at Crossway! What a wonderful time of encouragement - it felt like the church gave us a big hug (and we received many individual hugs). Thank you, Crossway for loving us so well.
We are on the move….
HOW YOU CAN PRAY!
Pray for Bart as he goes to Idaho to get the rental truck this Friday! Pray that it is not windy. Pray that the passes are clear.
Pray for us as we travel Sunday thru Tuesday. Pray that it is not windy. Pray that the passes are clear. Pray for our vehicles.
Pray that God would prepare a people to join the new church plant. We are excited to see where and who God calls to His new body.